Former Home Minister and Congress Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram extended his support to writer and activist Arundhati Roy and slammed the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena’s nod to prosecute her in a case relating to allegedly provocative speeches, made way back in 2010. He said, “There was no justification then to register a case against her on the charge of sedition. There is no justification now to sanction prosecution against her.” 

Calling for the scrapping of sedition laws, Chidambaram said, “A speech that does not directly incite violence will not amount to sedition. When speeches are made, however many others may disagree, the state must show tolerance and forbearance. I stand by free speech and against the colonial law of sedition Section 124A that has been misused often and hence it must be scrapped.”

Taking a dig at the LG and the Union government, the Rajya Sabha MP said, “There are other provisions of law that are adequate to deal with incitement to violence. It is obvious that the LG (and his masters) have no place in their regime for tolerance or forbearance; or for that matter the essentials of democracy.”

VK Saxena gave sanction to prosecute Arundhati Roy and a former professor from Kashmir Sheik Showkat Hussain on October 10 for allegedly making provocative speeches at a conference in New Delhi in 2010. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Arundhati Roy and Sheik Showkat Hussain after orders from the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, reports said.